Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 18:26:25 -0400
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: "Mark M. Mills" <mmills@htcomp.net>
Subject: Re: implied or inferred memes
In-Reply-To: <37DD980E.7D677352@fcol.com>
Bob,
At 05:34 PM 9/13/99 -0700, you wrote:
>The biologists and the psychologists who did the worm and rat experiments
>fooled a lot of people for a long time and the experiments were so tedious
and
>involved they were difficult to repeat anyway.
There is the other end of the spectrum to consider, too. While it is
useful to point out the odd experiments with mind/memory that gain
popularity despite scientific refutation, there is also the case of true
consciousness denied by popular science.
For example, look at the troubles ASL users have had convincing the
academic establishment American Sign Language was a fully expressive
language. For most of the 20th century, institutions for the deaf avoided
ASL in favor of 'lip reading.' The academic establishment was convinced
that only 'lip reading' provided the intellectual fulfillments of language.
Language was words, not gesture. ASL users were primatives. In brief,
for most of the 20th century, the academic establishment refused to
acknowledge ASL users had full consciousness.
Assessing groups of humans to possess less than full consciousness has been
a common reaction to outsiders, regardless the culture.
Mark
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